A whole company got
a second brain and hours back every week
Most of The Engine's team was already using AI every day — just individually, tool by tool, without a shared foundation. Launch by Lunch turned that scattered momentum into one shared, AI-powered company brain plus automations tailored to how each team actually works, then taught the whole staff how to use it together. Adoption stuck because it built on habits people already had.
ABOUT THE ENGINE
Founded by MIT to bridge the gap between breakthrough science and real-world impact
The Engine is a nonprofit incubator and accelerator dedicated to providing early-stage Tough Tech companies with the critical infrastructure, programs, and ecosystem they need to thrive. MIT created The Engine in 2016 to support Tough Tech startups, those solving the world's most important challenges through science, engineering, and entrepreneurship, as they move from research breakthroughs to commercial impact.
Infrastructure
220,000 square feet of fully-managed wet lab, engineering, and office space, fully equipped for building Tough Tech.
Programs
Educational programming that addresses the complex challenges Tough Tech founders face, guiding them from idea to investment to impact.
Ecosystem
A thriving network of entrepreneurs, investors, academia, public officials, and corporate partners.
- Industry
- Venture & tough-tech incubation
- Team size
- 37 people
- Engagement
- Company brain + automations, now retainer
- Timeline
- April 2026 → ongoing
The Challenge
AI adoption wasn't the gap — alignment was
Individually, The Engine's team was already deep into AI — people across departments used it daily to move faster and get through their own work. The gap wasn't willingness or ability, it was structure: everyone was experimenting on their own, with their own tools and their own habits, and none of it was shared, governed, or built to scale across the team.
The Engine works with startups and founders building hard things, supporting hundreds of them at once. That means things move fast and there are a lot of moving pieces. The knowledge that made the team effective lived across different systems or was buried in docs, so answers were hard to find and easy to lose track of.
That fragmentation showed up as knowledge scattered across systems and buried in individual workflows, and a CRM only useful when it reflected reality — which took constant manual effort to maintain. Recurring work, meeting follow-ups, resident and partner updates, facilities reports, weekly status, ate real hours every week that a more organized system could reclaim. The Engine needed to bring that scattered momentum into one governed foundation: centralized knowledge, consistent workflows, and automations that reflected how the team actually operates.
What We Built
A two-layer brain, plus automations made for each team
One shared knowledge base for the whole company, department-specific workflows on top, and the education to make both stick.
Built the shared company brain
We stood up a single, secure, always-current knowledge base on Claude — so the AI habits people already had could plug into one governed source of truth, instead of everyone working from their own version of it. It refreshes on a monthly rhythm that leadership reviews in plain English, no code, no diffs, just a quick conversational sign-off.
Added a personal layer for every employee
On top of the shared brain, each team member gets a private working layer the assistant remembers, their priorities, their projects, their style, so it works like a real partner, not a generic chatbot. Private to them, never shared.
Automated the recurring work, team by team
We built automations around what each team was already doing: meeting follow-ups captured and routed automatically, resident and partner reviews, weekly status, daily facilities summaries. Each one is a 'push a button, get the artifact' workflow, not one tool stretched thin across everyone.
Taught the whole company how to use it
Before and after the build, Karen and Ariel spent real time helping staff understand the foundation: what was being built, how it fit together, and why. That upfront investment in shared understanding is what turned a rollout into real adoption.
Stayed on as an ongoing partner
The Engine moved into a monthly retainer, so the brain keeps current and the team has a partner for new questions and new workflows as they grow.
The Results
Adoption stuck, and the team got time back
We're a small team supporting founders working on some of the hardest problems in science and engineering. Every hour we spend on the mechanics of our own work is an hour we're not spending on them. AI adoption came quickly and naturally, in large part because Launch by Lunch helped us understand what was actually possible and set up scalable systems.
Rachael FaustSenior Manager, Marketing and Programs- 6+ tools in the tech stack connected to Claude: the brain plugs into the systems the team already lives in.
- 8 automations & skills running in production: built for real workflows, not demos.
- Real adoption across a busy 37-person team: people picked it up quickly because it was built around work they were already doing.
- Time back for the work that matters: recurring busywork (follow-ups, status, reports) now runs automatically.
- Knowledge is findable: anyone can get answers without tracking down the one person who knows.
- Workflows that fit each team: five functional areas got automations built around how they actually operate.
- A durable foundation: the brain stays current on a monthly rhythm leadership reviews in minutes.
Connected tools
HubSpot
Gmail
Google Drive
Google Calendar
Granola
Fathom
Monday.com
Airtable
Limble
QuickBooks
In Their Words
Launch by Lunch built something that fits our existing tool stack and the requirements of how we do our work every day. And that made the investment worth it.
Katherine OtwayChief Marketing Officer, The Engine